Kroenke wants unity in organization

Nuggets president felt no one was on same page

DENVER -- In the past 10 days, Nuggets president Josh Kroenke saw an unraveling of the fabric of an organization that he much rather would have been in lockstep.

Masai Ujiri, the team's executive director of basketball operations, was flirting with Toronto about a move there. George Karl, the team's coach, was not happy with simply coaching out the last year of his contract. He wanted an extension.

Suddenly, after a mostly harmonious season, no one was on the same page.

Ujiri left for Toronto's greener pastures. Kroenke refused to grant an early extension to Karl and, instead, opted to let him go. Now, with two potentially franchise-changing hires to make -- a new general manager and new coach -- Kroenke told The Denver Post on Friday after his news conference he wants one thing above all else: Unity.

"What we just did with the Avalanche is what we're going to do with the Nuggets now," Kroenke said Friday, referring to his hiring former players Joe Sakic (executive vice president of hockey operations) and Patrick Roy (ascoach) in May. "We have an opportunity to unite the whole organization, from top-to-bottom. The best organizations across all sports have a singular goal and a singular vision on how to get there.

"Not that we didn't have that before, but I think that with what we just did with the Avalanche and how I saw I could position that, I think that that also applies to this. We have a young team, we can unite everybody under a common goal under a different time frame and I think it's going to be good. It should be exciting.

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And daunting.

Kroenke first had the tough task of telling Karl he'd no longer be the coach of the team he guided to 423 wins in nine seasons. Kroenke acknowledged the decision was difficult, but necessary. After speaking with Karl on Sunday, Kroenke said he made the decision to fire him on Wednesday afternoon and told Karl on Thursday morning.

"I felt that although it was a tough decision, I felt it was the right one to make at this point in time for us all to get a fresh start moving forward," Kroenke said.

Karl has not talked publicly about his dismissal.

That fresh start has no particular face or style of play. Kroenke wants to hear ideas from candidates on how this team could be used before he marries himself to one. Some of the names of potential coaching candidates are familiar -- Indiana assistant Brian Shaw and Memphis head coach Lionel Hollins -- and some have yet to surface.

But with a roster that had been built by Kroenke in conjunction with Karl and Ujiri over the past three years to take full advantage of the high altitude, can they be taught new tricks? Kroenke says yes.

"There's a lot of different ways you can go with style, especially with the roster that we have," Kroenke said. "I think there's a few holes on the roster that we've got to fill, but I think that we have a good base and a good start."

Even with the NBA draft June 27, Kroenke didn't place a timetable on when he wants to hire a general manager or coach. He also said it didn't much matter what order the two were named.

The in-house candidate as general manager is Pete D'Alessandro, who was Ujiri's assistant. Kroenke said he would sit down with D'Alessandro soon to discuss the opening and direction of the franchise. Otherwise, Kroenke said he has not conducted any interviews for general manager.

"There's people coming out of the woodwork for both jobs, which tells me that people think pretty highly of our organization," Kroenke said. "So I'm not panicked about making a decision right now. There's some really good candidates that are out there right now as well as some that are calling in behind the scenes, too.

"So, I'm going to take my time and there's going to be an interview process for both, and I think it's going to be great for the organization moving forward."

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